Siena, Italy

Siena is a city in Tuscany, a UNESCO World Heritage site famous for a beautiful cathedral, medieval buildings and a street horse race - the Palio. However we did not get to see this famous spectacle, as we visited outside of racing season with our trip coinciding with a May Bank Holiday long weekend. Siena was just one part of this Italian holiday - as we flew into Bologna, routed via Florence and ended up flying back to London from Milan. With so many great cities visited, we enjoyed some amazing food and stunning architecture over the three day break.

London to Siena

We traveled to Siena via a train from Florence. We traveled to Florence via a train from Bologna. The logistics (and dramas) of how we made the inter-city connections will be documented in the 'Bologna' blog post, so this post kicks off from the point we arrived at Stazione Siena (Siena train station) and is not completely in chronological order. 

Stazione Siena

When visiting Siena by train, it is good to know in advance that the station is located about 2km away from the historical center of town. When you depart the train platform, follow the rest of the tourists and enter the shopping mall - Porta Siena. Here you can take a comfort break and pick up supplies for the day's sightseeing. Then take a very long escalator up the hill to street level (Viale Vittorio Emanuele II) and head left until you reach the city walls and central gate.

City Gate

Old Town

The city was a powerful Republic from the 11th century until 1555 and has retained many of the buildings from this era; resulting in UNESCO granting it World Heritage listing status as the "embodiment of a medieval city". It is popular with large tour groups so there is an element of being squeezed during the midday peak as the Old Town is predominately a pedestrian zone with the odd vespa cruising down at high speed from the maze of narrow laneways. 

Medieval buildings in the Old Town

Historical courts and statues during our walk

Legend has that Siena was founded by the sons of Remus,
who himself founded Rome and was raised by a she-wolf

Hotel - Albergo Cannon D'Oro

Our hotel was located in the center of the Old Town in a building that was formerly a palace and once owned by Ghinibaldo di Saracino and his wife Sapia Salvani, featured in Dante's “Divine comedy”(Canto XIII, Purgatory). The hotel staff were very friendly and provided us with a city map to ensure we could find our way through the maze of streets. Staying overnight inside the Old Town had its benefits - meaning we could explore the town after the rush of tour buses from Florence had left for the day.

Entrance to our hotel

Piazza del Campo

The central public space in Siena is the curved Piazza del Campo. Walking from the city gate to the Piazza took us more than 20 minutes and there are several entrances to choose from including some hidden as small passageways between shops. Walking into the Piazza, all attention is funneled towards the Palazzo Pubblico (town hall) and the towering Torre del Mangia (bell tower) on one side. The rest of the space is bordered by cafes and restaurants that are perfectly placed for people watching. The upper end of the space contains the Fonte Gaia ("Fountain of Joy") built in 1419.

Old painting of the Piazza del Campo

Torre del Mangia and Palazzo Pubblico

Panoramic of the cafes in the Piazza

Fonte Gaia

On the Easyjet flight in, we had bought a holiday mascot - Gulliver ("Gully"). He had his photo taken in the Piazza, but sadly has not made any further appearances on our holidays to date as he doesn't fit into our carry on luggage.

Gully in Siena

Palio di Siena

Retained over the centuries is the strong culture of neighbourhood rivalry. The city is divided into 17 contrade (districts) that compete against each other in the bi-annual horse race (Palio) held in July and August each year within the Piazza del Campo. Only ten districts are represented at each race to reduce injuries to jockeys and horses. The race lasts only 90 seconds but often riders are thrown off the horses as they make narrow turns. Each rider wears the distinctive colours of the district, that are also represented in the flags and street light decorations that identify the street boundaries within the Old Town. 

Flag of the Aquila (Eagle) contrada

A street light decorated in the style of the Dolphin,
icon of the Onda (Wave) contrada

Duomo di Siena

Siena's famous Romanesque-Gothic Cathedral was the highlight of our visit. We have visited many richly decorated places of worship around Europe, but this ranked as one of the prettiest. The current building was constructed around 1196AD and the facade is decorated with statues (replicas, as the real ones are inside the museum). 

Main entrance to Duomo

Planning your visit

Our tips for visiting include: 1) clear most of the day as you can visit six attractions using a single ticket (Opa Si Pass, 12 euro) and some queuing may be required although the pass can be used over three consecutive days; 2) go early to avoid the worst of the queues - we visited during a 'peak' time but came back to the Cathedral at first light the next morning to take photos of the facade; 3) visit the Panorama del Facciatone during good weather - this may be out of your control, but we visited just as a rain shower passed through and the combination of dark clouds and strong winds made it less enjoyable to be outside sightseeing.

Baptistery of San Giovanni

As we had approached the Cathedral from the back entrance, there were a number of stairs to climb before the ticket counter is visible, although there are many signs in English that point the way. We bought the Opa Si Pass as it offered a 50% discount on paying the individual admission fees. Our first stop was the Baptistery of San Giovanni with a beautiful ceiling, large Baptismal Font and sculpture by Renaissance masters including Donatello and Lorenzo Ghiberti.

Crypt

Our next stop was the Crypt, an underground space that had previously been filled with rubble and only discovered in 1999-2003 to contain late 13th-century frescoes showing scenes from the Old Testament and the life of Christ. Photography is not allowed as frescoes from this period of time are rare and require protection.

Museum 

Next to the ticket counter, the museum contains various works of art that have been associated with the cathedral including the Maestà dy Duccio di Buoninsegna - the largest altar piece ever painted (some panels exist in the National Gallery, London) and original statues and rose window from the Duomo.

Interior of Duomo and Mosaic Floor

The interior of the Cathedral is decorated with black and white marble stripes, painted ceilings and a large stained glass window. Paintings and statues fill almost all the spaces and we spent over half an hour admiring the works of art on the walls and columns.

Striped columns

Painted walls

Decorated ceiling

Impressive dome

Stained glass window

Pulpit

One of the famous attributes of the Cathedral is the mosaic floor consisting of 56 panels, several only uncovered during two months of the year. The panels use a variety of colours and sketches of the designs can be found in the museum.

Piccolomini Library

This small space is decorated with frescoes that tell the life story of cardinal Enea Silvio Piccolomini from Siena who eventually became Pope Pius II. The room is beautiful and despite the foot traffic, it is worth taking your time to appreciate the artwork by walking several rounds.

Piccolomini Library

Panorama del Facciatone

The Panorama is a scenic lookout that is accessible from the top of the museum. Only a limited number of visitors are allowed outside at one time and requires a short hike up a number of narrow stairs. The view was worth the effort of waiting in line for over an hour. The terrace is built on the remains of an extension to the cathedral that had been planned in 1339. However shortly after construction began, the city was hit by the Black Death and the population suffered, stopping many public works. The extension was never completed.

The terrace is located on top of this archway

View of Piazza del Campo

View of the historic Old Town

Side view of the Duomo

All smiles just before the rainstorm arrived

Food in Siena

Our first stop after the train station was at a small bakery near the Piazza del Campo. The pizza was simple but tasty; and we supplemented this meal with a packet of Parma Ham.

Lunch on the go

This gave us the energy to walk for the rest of the afternoon, only stopping for gelati and coffee after completing all the attractions at the Duomo. We returned to Piazza del Campo for a glass of wine and an antipasto platter with local cured meats from Bar il Palio.

People watching in the Piazza

For dinner, we decided to take our chances on the local restaurants to see which ones were full of patrons. We started walking up and down the laneways until Mei spotted a small trattoria - La Vecchia Tavera di Bacco where the waitress helped to translate the menu into English and we had a ravioli and two types of stew washed down with some local beer. Dessert was a few steps down the road - a big scoop of gelati at the Gelateria Brivido

Video Memories

Olie enjoys using short video clips to capture scenic or atmospheric moments on our travels. Recently he has started producing videos for our YouTube channel, combining well known classical music tracks (acknowledging the artist so we don't run foul of copyright issues) with photos and video clips. Below is the link to our Siena and Bologna composition. Enjoy. 

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